Attn Everyone: Buying From Abroad

Linoge

I was going to write SEX as the title but I decided to use more tact. Sorry people but I have no bargain to report.
I am just requesting for someone to write up a sticky on how to buy from abroad, eg Who to trust, how to pay, what tax and duties will have to be paid.
Maybe its just me but I would find this very helpful. I often find bargains on Ebay that I would be happy to share.

If anyone can help me at the moment, I am looking to buy an ipod from England and I'm wondering would I have to pay duty on it seen as it's (barely) an EU country. I've heard of stories on boards about people paying duty on items from the US but haven't heard anything about from the UK.

I apologise to the moderators if this thread is unnecessary or in the wrong forum.

tomk

No duty is payable on purchases from any EU country.

ruprect

I always email US ebayers in advance of placing a bid to ensure they will mark the customs slip as a gift of low value.
No duty is due from the EU but I am not sure about VAT, about 15 years back I heard there is about a 1 in 100 chance of getting charged VAT on stuff from england, I used to get all my computer games from england as it was about 1/2 price. Don't know if this alleged risk is still there, I have never heard of anybody being charged anything on stuff within the EU, except cigarettes.

I think this is in the right forum as many bargains can be got from non-EU sites

vicadd

Unless you are a company, you always pay VAT on goods from other EU countries. But currently you pay VAT at the rate in the country you purchase from, so that's 17.5% from the UK. You do not have to pay Irish VAT on top of this.
However, I think there are plans to change the rules so that companies selling over the internet have to charge VAT at the rate in the destination country - i.e. they will not charge the VAT rate in their country, but will charge 21% Irish VAT (although, this may just be for companies selling to you from countries outside the EU).

secret_squirrel

Its worth bearing in mind that by definition a something bought from a private seller on ebay is secondhand and therefore VAT has already been paid on it.

[edit] good idea for a sticky btw

parsi

vicadd wrote:

However, I think there are plans to change the rules so that companies selling over the internet have to charge VAT at the rate in the destination country - i.e. they will not charge the VAT rate in their country, but will charge 21% Irish VAT (although, this may just be for companies selling to you from countries outside the EU).

This has already been done (for at least a year). Amazon change the price when you checkout to reflect Irish VAT rates, computeruniverse.net do it as well, jes don't (at the moment). There is a threshold and if a company does over that amount of business with another country they should charge that countrys VAT rate.

edit:

see this link (Section 5 - foreign firms making distance sales to Ireland )http://www.revenue.ie/pdf/sop199a.pdf

penexpers

ruprect wrote:

I always email US ebayers in advance of placing a bid to ensure they will mark the customs slip as a gift of low value.

That's all well and good until the stuff gets lost in the post and you're left with no postal insurance to claim off.

Nukem

parsi wrote:

see this link (Section 5 - foreign firms making distance sales to Ireland )http://www.revenue.ie/pdf/sop199a.pdf

Great article.Clears up a load.the £200 marker is a good point but as of Novemeber 1st that changed,all imports from the states or outside EU tax must be paid,was talking to a guy who imports from d US and he said gettin very strict.

Best bet i was told was ring customs and ask them.They are doing there job its the Goverment that set d dumb rules.They will tell ya straight.

dudara

I am looking to buy an ipod from England

If you know any apple employee, get them to buy for you. You could save 17% through a friends and family discount on the 20 and 40 Gb iPods.

I work in Apple, Cork on the assembly line part-time, and I got myself a 20 Gb for ~E245 using my 27% apple employee discount.

spongebob

Nukem wrote:

Great article.Clears up a load.the £200 marker is a good point but as of Novemeber 1st that changed,all imports from the states or outside EU tax must be paid,was talking to a guy who imports from d US and he said gettin very strict.

Customs blitzed a coupla flights from NY last month....shoppers. Mysteriously there was an Indo journo there at the time who wrote a great scare article for Customs afterwards.

Personal imports are still possible but if you swan thru customs with designer label bags from 5th Avenue then you will attract interest (and duty ) for being a muppet.

Imports thru the post will be handled by GLS , ouch

M

signostic

I am thinking of buying some sports equipment (250$ worth and not available in Irl) from the US. I know I will be hit for tax and duty but why is GLS (General Logistic Services ?) rated so badly? Is there any other shipping companies that deliver from the US ?

ruprect

vicadd wrote:

Unless you are a company, you always pay VAT on goods from other EU countries. But currently you pay VAT at the rate in the country you purchase from, so that's 17.5% from the UK. You do not have to pay Irish VAT on top of this.

I remember now! it was 15 years back, we were not charged Uk vat so got stuff extra cheap and were never caught for irish VAT.

That's all well and good until the stuff gets lost in the post and you're left with no postal insurance to claim off.

The lower the value on the customs slip the less likely it is to get "lost" . I'll live with the risk

I know I will be hit for tax and duty but why is GLS (General Logistic Services ?) rated so badly?

Because they have no competition so treat you like dirt. I had stuff arrive from the states in 3 days and took 2 weeks from then before I saw it, they charge vat and duty on the cost of product PLUS shipping, and they threw on another 11 euro charge for good luck for themselves. any stuff going through normal post goes through them.
i had stuff from fedex delivered and 2 months later i got a invoice for duty

Nukem

Was just thinking if i get my aunt to buy a Graphics card in d states and ship it to me and i cant be nailed for TAX.
2 reasons:its a present and its technically second hand
This right or am i dreaming?

masto1983

You should contact http://www.musictechnology.ie before buying from abroad.
They matched thomann's prices for a Fender i'm looking to get. Havent bought it from them yet tho, waiting on the cash!

ruprect

Nukem wrote:

Was just thinking if i get my aunt to buy a Graphics card in d states and ship it to me and i cant be nailed for TAX.
2 reasons:its a present and its technically second hand
This right or am i dreaming?

thats right. many people get stuff sent over. if people are worried about customs they can post stuff back if they go shopping to the states too. if sending stuff and you are paranoid you can always put a note in it from your aunt saying you left it behind.

Tazz T

When you post something like that from the states a document goes in on which the sender ticks 'gift' which basically means 'no vat or excise payable'. Many 'good' ebayers will do the same with new goods.

spongebob

and with a value of less than USD50 as well Tazz .

M

penexpers

ruprect wrote:

Because they have no competition so treat you like dirt. I had stuff arrive from the states in 3 days and took 2 weeks from then before I saw it, they charge vat and duty on the cost of product PLUS shipping, and they threw on another 11 euro charge for good luck for themselves. any stuff going through normal post goes through them.
i had stuff from fedex delivered and 2 months later i got a invoice for duty

The are obliged to charge tax on the cost of goods plus shipping. It's a revenue thing. They are also allowed to charge 11 euro handling fee, for taking the money off you and passing it onto revenue. All other courier companies do this too.

ruprect

penexpers wrote:

The are obliged to charge tax on the cost of goods plus shipping. It's a revenue thing. They are also allowed to charge 11 euro handling fee, for taking the money off you and passing it onto revenue. All other courier companies do this too.

I dont remember fedex stating a handling fee, who comes up with the 11 euro figure? Still treat you like dirt by making you wait ages to get it, at least fedex delivered and charged later, something I also dont agree with. In work we sent a sample worth about €2 with paperwork which had €4000 quoted on it in among lots of other info, it got held at customs trying to charge % duty on the 4000, it wasnt even an invoice and was clearly marked. wouldnt fancy some gobshlte in Fedex giving me an invoice for a few grand due to their incompetence

wanwarlock

dudara wrote:

If you know any apple employee, get them to buy for you. You could save 17% through a friends and family discount on the 20 and 40 Gb iPods.

I work in Apple, Cork on the assembly line part-time, and I got myself a 20 Gb for ~E245 using my 27% apple employee discount.

dude, can u get 1 for me at that price???

CastorTroy

Ok after reading this thread I had to sign up as it's in relation to something I wanna know. Basically I was planning on getting Smallville Season 3 from Amazon.com but I'm put off by the whole import duty thing. It's priced at $41.99 so was wondering would I have to pay duty or anything. If so roughly how much and how is it paid?

secret_squirrel

Given that you can get it from CDwow.ie for €49.99 with free delivery why are you worried?

If you are insistent in buying from across the pond - try dv-depot.com - they are a canadian site - but they used to send the dvd's unwrapped and marked as secondhand - which attracts no duty.

*disclaimer I havent ordered anything from them for years - ever since play and cdwow got established.

[nicK]

i'll probably be ordering a nintendo ds next week from lik-sang.com (japan) .. it's going to cost around 250dollors including games... does anyone know what the import duty costs would be?

parsi

[nicK] wrote:

i'll probably be ordering a nintendo ds next week from lik-sang.com (japan) .. it's going to cost around 250dollors including games... does anyone know what the import duty costs would be?

Don't lik-sang have a euro site (click on the european flag on the home page)where they ship from the UK - this would obviate any duty issues/problems ?

Edit: just had a look there (was thinking about buying a light gun) but the euro site only has a selection of items..

Thorbar

I remember hearing about a company that allowed you to buy something in the US and ship it to them and then they'd redirect it to you. The idea was that this would allow you to buy off sites that only shipped to US addresses. I'm actually interested in giving this a go but for the life of me I can't remember the name of the site. Has anyone else heard of this?

CastorTroy

Using the converter on xe.com the total price of getting Smallville from Amazon.com works out at about €38. Which is why was looking to buy from there. But something that's put me off from buying from any site abroad is they all say about unknown customs charges. So would be great if had something to go by when working out how much it'd be. And who's paid? Do we pay the postman or something?

e38418

would sendin dvds to kosovo be alrite?